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Kenneth ClarkKenneth Clark
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Session:         Page of 763

that he thought it was impolitic?

Clark:

I guess they're related. One of the things I would say positively about Franklin Roosevelt was that he was focussing on two things: economic remedies, which could not be restricted to whites. You know WPA [Works Progress Administration] and CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] and things of that sort. The Depression was a curiously democratic period of American history. Everybody was suffering, so whatever the government did to relieve the suffering of the people could not be racial. But the specific racial problems still remained, such as segregation and whatnot, and segregation in the Army. The other thing about Roosevelt was that he was confronted with the international war threats and problems, and had to devote a tremendous amount of time to that. But he was not Truman. Truman saw, and did something about, segregation in the Army. Apparently Roosevelt was too concerned with the problem of stopping fascism.

Q:

Yes. Didn't Roosevelt, in this period, start calling himself “Dr. Win the War”?

Clark:

There's no question in my mind that Roosevelt was not a racist in the usual sense, but he certainly did have the problem of the solid Democratic-racist South. He wasn't going to threaten that kind of support, and certainly didn't.

Q:

Of course, as far as Truman's re-election went, he had lost the South because of the Dixie revolt, and Strom Thurmond. The Dixiecrat





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